grandelumierian_empirefandomcom-20200215-history
War of the British Succession
The War of the British Succession or the Jacobite Rising of 1763 (''Scottish Gaelic: Bliadhna Theàlich'', “The Year of Charles”) is an ongoing global conflict involving many major European powers over the claim of the House of Stuart on the thrones Great Britain and Ireland. For a great deal of the earlier eighteenth century, Great Britain and Grandelumière remained in a passive alliance which each other, which reached its zenith in the Ten Years War in which the countries were pitted against Prussia. In the years following, relations between the countries soured; in no small part to the Treaty of Dresden (1747), which proved to be very unsatisfactory for England. This demise of good relations culminated in the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, in which traditional alliances in Europe suddenly switched, and Britain, amongst other nations (primarily Protestant), were in contrast with a coalition led by Grandelumière, consisting of Austria, Saxony, Spain, and others. Background In 1688, the Glorious Revolution replaced James II and VII with his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband William III and II. Since neither Mary II or her sister Anne had surviving children, the 1701 Act of Settlement excluded Catholics from the English and Irish thrones and after the 1707 Act of Union that of Great Britain. When Anne became the last Stuart monarch in 1702, her heir was the distantly related but Protestant Sophia of Hanover, not her Catholic half-brother James Francis Edward. Sophia died two months before Anne in August 1714; her son became George I and the pro-Hanoverian Whigs controlled government for the next 30 years. Jacobitism, the term for the Stuart loyalism, lingered in British politics long after James’ deposition, though English Jacobite support dwindled quickly after the failed risings of the late 17th century and the risings of 1715 and 1719. Scottish Jacobitism was rooted in the wish of restoring and preserving rights for Catholics in part, and more broadly it was based on a wish that the Stuarts would dissolve the Act of Union and rule both England and Scotland independently. In Ireland, it meant the protection of the Catholic Church and confirmed precedence of Irish Catholics. In England, frustration with the Hanoverian monarchs in the traditionally more absolutist and Anglican Tory party hinted at possible support for the Stuarts, though their only confirmed support in their absence was the small minority of Roman Catholics. After the Stuart flight to Grandelumiere in the sunset months of the 17th century, they established their Jacobite court in exile at the Chateau de Saint Germain-en-Laye, where they would remain with many members of their own Jacobite Peerage until they were expelled by the terms made in the 1730 Anglo-Grandelumierian Alliance. After their expulsion, they were invited to settle in Rome by Pope Benedict IV, where they were granted the Palazzo Muti. The Stuarts enjoyed generous support from the Papacy, and the court in Rome was a spectacle to behold for many aristocratic travelers coming from England and other countries. The birth of James’s sons, Charles and Henry, added further security to the Jacobite succession, though prospects of Grandelumierian support seemed dim with the long Ten Years War in which England and Grandelumiere were both engaged against Prussia and her allies. In 1745, a Jacobite insurgency in Scotland was briefly considered, though plans did not materialize due to a lack of funding and the alliance between Paris and London. Serious consideration for support of the Jacobites from Grandelumière did not develop until after their alliance with England dissolved. This occurred over many years after the Treaty of Strasbourg, which concluded the Ten Years War. The necessity of the alliance with London faded gradually as peace lasted in Europe following the Ten Years War. Marie IV’s first minister, Marie Eloise Seraphine de Blois de Penthièvre, along with her husband, Jean Fernand de Penthièvre an instrument in the Treaty of Strasbourg, which had favored Grandelumierian interests at the expense of Britain, and the Queen’s own favorite, the influential Cardinal Mortemart, were far more Austrophile than Anglophile, and increasingly sided against England in regards to German affairs. By the reign of Louis XIV, any semblance of amity between the two was a fantasy. Spain and Grandelumiere, in 1756, formed a Blois Family Compact, in which the two families united in mutual offensive diplomacy against Britain, and the hostile rhetoric and politics of William Pitt isolated Britain in the face of the alliance against her. Conception The design for war had begun with Louis Charles de Penthièvre in the early spring of 1763, who had at that point, replaced the Comte de Sezanne as Controller-General of Finance, and secretly began allocating funds necessary for the raising and equipping of additional men, and for transports to carry men across the Channel in a complete military invasion of the British Isles. While he developed a basic and rudimentary plan (his only strategic and tactical education was from his own studious research), he gathered a small circle including the Grand Dauphin, Mademoiselle d'Auvergne, the King’s Petit Maîtresse, and the Marquis of Louvois. With the Mademoiselle, Penthièvre had peaked Louis XIV's interest beyond the council chamber and grew in his affections for a puppeted English crown. At Monsieur le Prince’s own expense, he used the Marquis’ infinite mandate by the crown for espionage and counterintelligence to remove the extensive and puissant British intelligence which had been established in Grandelumière. Simultaneously, he also afforded to have agents from Louvois’ own selection to assess English standing military strength and Jacobite support in the isles. Jacobite support was reported as being “abundantly enthusiastic”, while in truth it was merely indifference for the Hanoverian government that dominated Britain. The most promising results of Jacobite support were from Ireland, which was attributed to their Catholic majority and disdain for the oppression felt from London. Penthièvre was of the opinion that Britain’s main strength was its navy, and that the relatively weak standing army that was maintained in the isles in peacetime could be easily overwhelmed by a larger Grandelumierian force. If the British Navy could be overwhelmed, distracted or deceived, and control over the Channel kept for a brief while, he believed that victory would practically be ensured. The plan developed was straightforward: The entire invasion force would comprise of around 100,000 men, the initial action would be to seize the Channel Islands with approximately 2,000 men, followed by a force 12,000 which would depart before the main invasion for the Scottish Highlands, where under the leadership of Prince Charles, would raise additional men from the Highland Clans and capture major cities, then march south into England. A force of 50,000 men would, after naval forces secured the Channel, cross on flat-bottomed rafts with all their horses, men, supplies, and artillery and land at Portsmouth in southern England where they would fortify the port as a depot and then march towards London. Around the same time, a force of 10,000 men would be transported to Ireland to secure important settlements and engage the garrisoned army there. After the landings occurred, the remaining 16,000 men prepared for the invasion would be dispatched to whichever of the fronts they were required. Spanish support was expected by Penthièvre, most importantly from their navy, which would be essential in securing the Channel and waters around Britain, and in assisting Grandelumiere on the seas and in the colonies, where she was stretched dangerously thin. The Spanish were also expected to lay siege to and capture Gibraltar, an important objective to removing any British resistance. The plan also included seizing the Hanoverian’s native country of Hanover with the assistance of Austria and Saxony as a means of squashing any possibility of hope for the House of Hanover to launch a vindictive invasion following their own expulsion, though fears arose of dragging nearly all of the Protestant powers to the side of Great Britain, and negotiations with the Austrians and the Saxons remained stagnant at the behest of the King, who in the words of Penthièvre, “kept a German war in his pocket.” Grandelumierian Preparations In April of 1758, Monsieur le Prince had seventy-five million livres allocated for preparations, and commissioned 200 flat-bottomed crafts, 100 feet long, 24 feet wide, 10 feet deep, with cannons at the front and rear, and capacity for 300 infantry or 150 cavalry were commissioned in Le Havre, with 10,000 workers brought in to complete the project in haste. An addition of one hundred and fifty craft were commissioned to be built at the ports of St. Malo, Dunkerque, Morlaix, and Brest. Additionally, fifteen small escort ships armed with twenty thirty-six pounders and two mortars, manned by 300 artillerymen were commissioned at the ports of Nantes, Brest, and Lorient. By the time all preparations were complete, 50 million livres had been spent on all the craft, enough for fifty ships of the line. It is estimated that around 100,000 livres a week was spent at Le Havre alone, and Penthièvre raised an additional forty million livres to defray any additional expenses. Ships stationed in the Mediterranean along the southern coast of Grandelumière and at Sardinia, Corsica and Naples were slowly brought up to Brittany and Normandy in anticipation, when the fleets stationed around the channel were fully bolstered, their total numbers amounted to forty-eight ships of the line and twenty-one frigates, leaving the number of ships overseas to just forty-five. Large numbers of marines and sailors, a total of ten thousand below-deck seamen and two thousand petty officers were conscripted and placed on ships and additional merchantmen and Breton corsairs were brought into the employ of the Navy. The result of months of naval preparation left the Marine Royale in a state to match, or even surpass that of the peacetime Royal Navy. British Reaction Despite the best efforts of Penthièvre and Louvois, the war that was eminently prepared was so massive in scale that it was all London could do but not take notice. Alarms flared and an emergency meeting was called on the 22nd of May at the house of the Earl of Halifax. Prime Minister George Grenville, John Perceval, First Lord of the Admiralty, the Duke of Newcastle, and John Ligonier, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces were all present. The increased failures of British intelligence due to the recent arrests, killings, and expulsions of British agents had been noted, and solutions proposed, though the focus of the British ruling elite was to strengthen the Royal Navy and forces stationed on the British Isles as quickly as possible. The Royal Navy at this time had over two hundred ships in commission, 88 of them being ships of the line, employing a total of around 40,000 seamen. Though Perceval urged his peers not to be overly optimistic regarding these numbers; of the 88 ships of the line, only 51 remained at port in Britain. Of those, only twenty-six were fully manned and sea-worthy. Grenville insisted the Navy be fully manned and sea-worthy before the Grandelumierians committed their forces to action, though the possibility was a precarious matter. Ligonier had a similarly grim forecast; in England, only ten thousand regulars could currently stand between a Grandelumierian army and London, and the raising of more regulars or even militia on such short notice had an uncertain prospect. By the next meeting of Parliament on the 23rd of May, news had already begun to spread throughout London about fears of a Grandelumierian invasion, and markets had begun to show signs of slowing. Parliament immediately granted the King fifteen million pounds in anticipation of a war and approved the raising of standing regiments to their fullest possible strengths. By the time of the invasion, the British Isles had a total of 38,970 men in all three kingdoms, not counting irregular militias that stood at the ready were they called upon for duty. Of irregulars, estimates settle on a number around 30,000. Furthermore, pensioners and reservists, called “Invalids” were called up for reserve service in order to garrison towns and cities, and the King made preparations to raise ten thousand men in Hanover. Nearing the eve of war between the two countries, Prime Minister George Grenville gave a vehement speech in the House of Commons immortalized by the line, "Should the threat of invasion be too arduous to bear for Parliament or for His Majesty's Government, or should we fail at sea or on the continent in the face of this league of popery, in faith with good Protestant values, the people of the British Empire will rise up to defend our home. If it remains that only I will defend England from becoming a Roman temple, I will perform thus with a resolve ever stronger, be it from the shores of our island to America beyond the seas, I will protest, with my dying breath, the menacing grasp of the Italian pretender tugged along by his masters sitting on their thrones in Paris and Rome!" Jacobite Involvement & Invasion Through Monsieur le Prince, Louis XIV established communication with Prince Charles (who had been acting as Prince-Regent) and arranged for his invitation to Grandelumière and to court at Argenteuil. On the fifth of June, 1763, at the Chateau de Chambord, the first meeting between Penthièvre, the King, and Charles was held in secret. Later that week a public reception was held at Argenteuil and a treaty styled the Treaty of Argenteuil, which described the alliance of the Jacobite cause and Grandelumière, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors. A surprise British raid on Dunkerque on June 15, while raising alarms (Louis XIV issued a formal declaration of war the following day) little damage was done to the planning as a whole. The war council raised by the King insisted on sending the joined Brest-Toulon fleet out of the harbor in Brest to deter any further attempts of British raid or blockade on the Grandelumierian coast. The Comte de Beaumont, who had been ultimately decided as the commander of this combined fleet, numbering nearly seventy ships, set sail from Brest on the 17th of June, as was originally planned. The Comte de Beaumont dispatched the Comte de Conflans with a squadron of twenty ships of the line to sail north towards England between the island of Ouessant and the Breton coast, while the remainder of the fleet sail to the west of it in order to rendezvous with thirty Spanish ships of the line that had been dispatched following Charles III's accord with Louis XIV's inquiry on the alliance between Grandelumiere and Spain. The Comte de Conflans suffered a terrible defeat at the Battle of Ouessant, while Beaumont and the Spanish fleet under Marqués de Villena delivered an equally terrible blow to the Royal Navy at the Battle of Scilly, which erased any hope of keeping the Grandelumierian army across the Channel. Following the victory at Scilly, the Duc de Villiers sailed from Lorient with 8,000 men and on June 20 landed in County Cork, Ireland and quickly marched to the city of Cork. Around the same time, the Duc de Mortemart, in command of his army at Le Havre, departed from the port on their flat-bottomed boats which were many months in construction. Poor weather and coordination led to a scatter for the army, and only around 47,500 landed around the town of Portsmouth, with approximately 1,000 landing on the Isle of Wight and 1,500 lost at sea. After corralling his forces, the Duc de Mortemart led his army against the town of Portsmouth, enveloping its extensive fortifications before pestering the formidable island with probing attacks, awaiting the navy to cutoff Portsmouth island from the sea in what would become known as the Siege of Portsmouth. All the while, the Earl of Ligonier, who lead an army of observation consisting of nearly 22,000 men began to rally the various English militias to his side before going against Mortemart. In London, markets plummeted once news of the defeats at Scilly and the landings in Ireland and Portsmouth reached the city and Parliament was immediately ceased after passing some acts necessary to the future governance and defense of the kingdoms. The Privy Council was placed in charge of the city and future military matters while Parliament dissolved into the countryside, along with many thousands of civilians, who saw a Grandelumierian army as a sure sign of the first sack of London. On the eve of Prince Charles' departure for Scotland with the Marquis de Nesle, news arrived from the Palazzo Muti in Rome: King James had suddenly died of illness unknown on June 2. The Prince, now even more determined to land in Scotland, was proclaimed King Charles III & III, still maintaining separate regnal numbers for England and Scotland in defiance of the Act of Union. On a less grand scale, the Duc de Penthièvre and the Prince-Bishop of Strasbourg departed from St. Malo with 2,000 men from Penthièvre's own estates and sailed for Jersey, landing on the July 17, where they proceeded to fight the rather long and dramatic Battle of Jersey in order to secure the island's capitulation. The campaign in Ireland ended rather quickly, with the English forces stationed there plagued by local opposition which quickly turned violent after Irish Jacobites took up arms against their occupiers. The garrisons of Galway, Limerick, and Carlaw fell to local revolts, and the English regiments that unified under Lieutenant-General St. Clair, who planned to divide his force and sail with half to England, and leave half under Lieutenant-General Browne, were surrounded and trapped near Rosslare, and subsequently surrendered after the Battle of Wexford on July 15. In England, Mortemart eventually wrestled Portsmouth out of English control after a detachment of Beaumont's fleet bottled a remnant of the late Edward Hawke's fleet in Portsmouth Harbor, which eventually burnt and scuttled itself and the garrison surrendered on the first of July. Meanwhile, his adversary Ligonier had rallied over ten thousand militiamen to his side to supplement his army and marched south to meet Mortemart. Ligonier marched with intense speed and far south as to appear to be moving against Portsmouth, though he only intended to lure Mortemart into the English countryside to grounds which only Ligonier chose to fight at. Mortemart followed and was only met with a frustrating rear-guard engagement at the Battle of Corhampton. The Duc only insisted on following Ligonier, rather than breaking off and making a direct route to London, meanwhile, the English retreated and searched for new ground to face the Grandelumierians and harrying their flanks with guerilla tactics by militiamen and dragoons. For six days and fifty miles following the brief engagement at Corhampton, Ligonier decided on a field west of the town of Guilford and engaged Mortemart on July 10 in the decisive Battle of Wanborough, though while a defeat for English, from which they never recovered, it was an expensive victory for Mortemart, and the English were able to retreat once more into the countryside which was bitterly hostile to the invaders. Ligonier received orders from London to lure the Grandelumierians away from London for as long as possible and so he retreated north to the very banks of the River Thames. Again Mortemart followed Ligonier blindly from an absolute lack of intelligence. This time, Ligonier fought Mortemart for a final time west of Windsor around the village of Fifield. The ensuing Battle of Windsor proved to dash the hopes of an English victory against Grandelumiere in the south of England, and an end to Ligonier himself, who died the night after the battle from wounds sustained from falling from his horse due to cannon fire. Ligonier's successor, General Harrington planned a surrender to Mortemart following the battle after having a sudden political defection. He explained to his command staff, "I'm not to see more English boys die so a German cretin may flee rather than face his enemies like this Scottish prince." The move was unpopular with much of his command, and prior to the surrender, a large portion of the army deserted under the command of Lord Delaware and his 1st Guards. With him came Lord Cadogan and the 2nd Queen's Troop of Guards, the Coldstream Guards under Lieutenant-General Tirawly, the 1st Royal Dragoons under Major-General Conway, the 8th King's Foot, the 24th Foot under Lieutenant-General Edward Cornwallis and ten cannons. The deserters made their way to London seeking passage with King George and his court and government to America. Flight of King George On July 11, the day following the English at Wanborough, it was announced in St. James' Palace and later in London newspapers that King George, his court, high command of the army and navy, and essential functions of the government would be fleeing London for Hanover, though after fears arose that a continental war would arise following such an arrival, one which Britain would most certainly lose due to their recent failure as a naval power. The destination of the flight was then changed to Philadelphia and couriers sent ahead of the main departure. Dispatches requesting assistance were made to Marie Louise of Hesse-Kassel, regent to the Prince of Orange, William V, who was Stadholder of the United Provinces. The regent agreed to supply half a million pounds to Britain and gather and transport mercenaries from Hesse-Kassel and Brunswick on behalf of King George, as well as transporting some of the Hanoverian troops raised in Hanover. On short notice, 9,000 German soldiers were transported on Dutch ships to America, while they themselves remained a neutral power. In order to accommodate the total of 7,090 soldiers, courtiers, servants, officers both government and military, members of Parliament, both Tories and Whigs, and aristocrats that required passage with King George, a number of ships were provided from the East India Company, and a number were apprehended from various merchants in the city. In total, the horde was to be transported on a total of thirty-two ships, twenty from the fleet of the recently made Admiral Rodney, the hero of Ouessant, five from the East India Company, and seven apprehended from the public. The ships had to be stripped of many of their cannons and thus capability to wage naval warfare in order to accommodate everyone. The heavy artillery was sunk in the River Thames in order to avoid capture by Grandelumierian or Jacobite forces. On July 16, as the Grandelumierian army was miles from London, the fleet departed up the River Thames and north up the English coast, in order to avoid being intercepted by any enemy ships. Mortemart had caught wind of the departure from the Earl of Harrington, who actually joined his army to the Grandelumierians in the name of the Jacobites, though with great protest from his own rankers, many of whom deserted. On the 17th, the Gardes Gauloises marched past St. James' to the beat of the pipes of the 42nd Highlanders and Grandelumierian and British officers toasted each other in Queen Charlotte's residence of Buckingham. King George and his massive entourage arrived at Philadelphia on August 26. City officials had only days to prepare the settlement of just over 30,000 for the influx of new residents and set aside 3,000 homes by marking them with the cypher GIIIR, which stands for Georgius III Rex. Residents of marked homes were forced to evacuate with all of their belongings within three days time. The event caused outrage throughout the city and the colonies, and refugees were forced onto the streets or into the countryside. King George himself made residence at the Pennsylvania State House as well as the seat of government, packing the building with ministers and commanders of his army and navy. His army of loyalists from England camped outside of Philadelphia and within days of their arrival were joined by the thousands of Hanoverians and other German mercenaries promised by the Dutch. Calls for provincial volunteers were made almost immediately and the new Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, Lord Delaware began drafting plans for a campaign in New York and Canada before pro-Jacobite reinforcements arrived in North America. Scotland After being proclaimed King Charles III, the Stuart Pretender and the Marquis de Nesle along with 12,000 men sailed from Dunkerque on June 19. On June 21 he landed near Dundee in Scotland and raised his royal standard over the city. Only two days after Charles landed in Dundee, an obscure Highland clansman but prominent Jacobite, Thomas Bisset, arrived in Dundee with nearly 800 men and officers from the clans of Fraser, Farquharson, Forbes, and Gordon. Bisset was well received by the King and would go on to act as a premier advisor to him as well as a mediator of the friction between the Marquis and the King, which frequently arose. On the 23rd Charles reached Perth, and by that time, George Beauclerk, the senior commander of the forces in Scotland had heard of Charles' landing and forwarded it onto London. Expecting no reinforcements from England, he relied on an army numbering nearly eight thousand gathered from the regiments stationed around Scotland, and on the influence of Lord President Robert Dundas to negotiate with clan leaders into supporting Hanover, or at least into neutrality, which worked to little effect. After taking Perth unopposed, Charles was joined by Charles Cameron, Chief of Clan Cameron. With him came the MacDonells of Glengarry and Kennoch for a total of 1,320 men. The Drummonds from Perth brought an additional 400 men to the cause. Charles then decided to march to Stirling and wait for the Government's response against him, all the while men flocked to his banner. In Stirling, Charles was officially proclaimed King of Scotland. By July 2, the entire Highlands seemed to be coming to Charles' side; the Gordons, Ogilvys, MacLeods, and the Stewarts of Appin came to Stirling with a total of 1,500 men. The MacLachlans, Chisolms, MacDonalds, and Chattans were the last clans to join Charles, bringing his total of Highlanders to 5,620. The speed at which the Scottish population came to Charles' aid was sobering for the Hanoverian government and thus Beauclerk decided to take action by marching against Charles and Nesle, who currently sat in Stirling. On July 5, Beauclerk marched from Glasglow with 7,700 men against Stirling. Upon hearing this news, the Marquis de Nesle and a majority of his staff clashed with Charles and his Scottish and Irish council about the strategy they would adopt against the government forces. Nesle advised caution; wishing to remain in Stirling and allow their army to grow, while also waiting on news from Mortemart in England. Charles was impatient and as were his Highlanders. Even his cool-minded Gallophile Thomas Bisset wished to march against the English. The dispute became so heated that Charles, ever the idealist, marched from Stirling with his force of Scots against Beauclerk while Nesle nested in Stirling. For a brief moment, the entire campaign seemed to be in sudden jeopardy; Beauclerk outnumbered the Highlanders, though the vast majority of his men were raw recruits. Beauclerk had no idea the forces had divided, and on the morning of July 10, the armies met at Bannockburn. The battle was over in an hour and to everyone's surprise (except the king), the Jacobites turned Beauclerk's army to rout and won a decisive victory. Beauclerk retreated to Edinburgh with the remainder of his army while Charles stalked him all the way. Upon reaching Edinburgh, Beauclerk received word of King George's flight from the country. When Charles was near he offered an unconditional surrender, which Charles accepted and held in an exquisite pomp at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. Charles then accepted begrudging oaths of fealty from Beauclerk and his officers following the surrender. The regiments captured at Bannockburn and that surrendered at Edinburgh were then dissolved and sent away, including George Beauclerk. The Marquis de Nesle, along with his army from Grandelumiere had received the English prisoners from Bannockburn along with news of Charles' victory stunning victory. The number of prisoners and victory itself came as a shock to Nesle, who immediately left Stirling for Edinburgh to be received by Charles, who had formally established Holyrood Palace as his seat in Scotland and now held a proper court. After holding a council regarding their next action, Charles agreed to a compromise with Nesle; the Marquis would take his force south to England to reunite with Mortemart and seek further orders there, while the Irish and Scottish regiments in the service of Grandelumiere would remain with Charles and assist him in further operations against remaining Hanoverian holdouts in Scotland. The king remained at Holyrood Palace for nigh on three weeks before venturing out with a force of 11,908 men. Charles first established a garrison at Glasglow before marching up the eastern coast to Aberdeen. Charles continued on, reaching Aberdeen on August 14. On the 19th he stormed Fort Augustus, and Fort William surrendered four days later without a shot. After Charles' circuit of Scotland, throughout the British Isles, Hanoverian military order had melted away, and any regiments that stood in any garrison of Scotland deserted or surrendered in the weeks following King George's flight. Charles returned to Holyrood and would remain there with his Highland court until the early spring of 1764, when he moved to St. James' Palace in London and reestablished Parliament with the intent of maintaining a particular absolutism that King George had preferred, as well as repealing the Act of Succession and the Acts of Union. War in the Colonies Following the widespread success of Jacobite-Grandelumieran actions in the British Isles and the flight of King George to America, Hanoverian resistance faded in Europe; their only bastions being in untouched Hanover, Minorca, and Gibraltar, which was besieged by the Spanish from land and sea shortly after the departure of King George. The Grandelumierian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Marquis de Beaupré discussed the option of sending terms to King George with the Jacobite ambassador to Paris, William O'Rourke, though upon inquiry with King Charles, the king responded, "I refuse to accept that we have forced that German prince from my throne only to grant him the fruits of centuries devoted to America." While King Charles began to rebuild Stuart rule in the British Isles, Grandelumiere recalled many of its armies back to their native country, though the Duc de Mortemart remained in England with ten thousand men to assist in maintaining the Stuart regime. In Grandelumiere, the question of deposing the Hanoverian government in America remained. Noone had expected they would continue to hold out after being defeated in Britain, and while their capacity to raise significant sums of money and their empire from Gibraltar to India was threatened, by the end of September in 1763, King George's Army consisted of 4,000 British regulars, 9,000 Germans, and expected to be able to raise around 10,100 provincial troops. New Grandelumiere was not a properly settled colony like the Thirteen Colonies belonging to Great Britain, rather a vast swathe of uninhabited territory webbed together by a series of forts along the major waterways. The only major settlements of New Grandelumiere were Quebec and Montreal in Canada and New Orleans in Lower Louisiana. The Grandelumierian government was as well aware of this fact as the Hanoverians were, and they needed to capitalize on it, they only did not know how. It had been the long-settled policy of the French to treat the Native Americans within their territories generously. This was especially true of the Governor-General of New Grandelumiere, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, himself a native to Canada, and a great ally to Grandelumierian Canadians and Native Americans both. Even before the war, the Grandelumierians were in the good graces of the nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy. It was the mistake of the English to overlook the necessity of Native intelligence and irregular fighters in a North American conflict, and it was a mistake that possibly cost them a favorable peace. King George's war office decided that time was of the essence, and they needed to negotiate with Grandelumiere from a position of strength and seize valuable territory before winter, and before reinforcements arrived from Grandelumiere. Additionally, there were concerns of the colonies naval vulnerabilities, as they could only immediately access a dozen ships of the line in the Thirteen Colonies and around another score in the Caribbean, essentially the last of the once proud Royal Navy. As the summer aged and knowing that reinforcements to Canada were soon inbound, Lord Delaware, who now headed British war strategy, ordered supplies to be collected across Pennsylvania and Maryland for a campaign against Grandelumierean Canada. The plan consisted of a three-pronged strike, one aimed at Louisbourg by way of the Atlantic, another around the Great Lakes to strike at Niagra, and a third to march up the Hudson River to Montreal. The forces would strangle Quebec and with it New Grandelumiere all the way down the Mississipi to New Orleans. The campaign was planned to launch in September, and the war office agreed there was no time to haggle for native support, despite this, Sir William Johnson, the Superintendant of Indian Affairs was ordered to host potential native allies in Albany. Lord Jeffrey Amherst was given command over the middle prong, with one British regiment, numerous Hessian and Brunswickers, and with a supplement of provincial American troops for a total of 7,780 men. WIP Category:Grandelumierian Wars Category:War of the British Succession